Samsung’s been working on connected appliances for years and the company’s flagship smart fridge feels like a personification of the vision they have for the connected kitchen. Today Samsung is unveiling their next generation Family Hub with stronger app integration and a series of new partners to enhance features like family communication and grocery to fridge food shopping.
“The Family Hub is a huge step forward in the modern kitchen. It empowers you to do things you never thought possible – like take the fridge with you to the grocery store, digitally display a photo of your kids’ winning goal, and enjoy your favorite entertainment right from your digital screen,” commented John Herrington, Samsung’s SVP and General Manager of the Home Appliance Division.
The appliance giant is revealing the smart fridge’s advancements tonight at an event in partnership with the Smart Kitchen Summit; the event will bring together experts in kitchen trends, product innovation and cultural anthropology for a panel discussion today at Samsung’s experiential retail center in NYC.
The event, “More Than Just a Fridge: The Future of Food, Family & Fun in the Kitchen,” features Samsung execs including Herrington and Yoon Lee, Michael Wolf, curator of the Smart Kitchen Summit and publisher of The Spoon, Lisa Fetterman, CEO and founder of sous vide startup Nomiku, Christian Madsbjerg, Cultural Anthropologist and Amy Bentley, Food + Culture Professor at NYU. Programming at the event will tackle why the kitchen has become the hub of the home, how the kitchen is evolving to serve the changing needs of multi-generational families and how technology is created convenience and connection in the kitchen.
The Family Hub fridges will add new features including personal memos and photos on the digital touchscreen, partnerships with TuneIn and Spotify for music streaming and integration with Samsung TVs to push programming to the fridge’s front door screen.
This latest edition of Samsung’s smart fridge will also feature the Connect app, the company’s smart home control app introduced earlier this year on the Galaxy S8. By putting the Connect app on the Family Hub fridge, the appliance can now act as a smart home command center if they have a SmartThings hub or the Samsung new Connect Home Smart Wi-Fi system with an integrated SmartThings hub.
The new Family Hub also has integration with a number of cooking applications and services such as Allrecipes and GrubHub. The device will also work with Nomiku’s immersion circulator, which is an integration by-product of Samsung’s investment in Nomiku.
(Disclosure: The Smart Kitchen Summit and Samsung partnered to produce the event mentioned in this post.)
Hi, this looks very interesting. When will it be available, and any idea on price point?